Senior Director, R&D HR Business Partnering

Senior Director, R&D HR Business Partnering

Cloudflare
· United States, Austin, TX

Hybrid Full-time Senior People

• Austin, TX (Relocation Assistance provided to those willing to relocate)

Cloudflare is scaling its global connectivity and security platform while transforming into an AI-native organization powered by our own AI harness and developer infrastructure. As Senior Director, R&D HR Business Partnering, you will lead a global team of embedded HRBPs supporting senior executives across Engineering, Product, Security, and Research.

In this role, you serve as the strategic HR leader for R&D and the primary conductor bridging business leadership with our Centers of Excellence (Total Rewards, Talent Acquisition, Talent Development, People Operations). You will challenge and champion the business-architecting an organization built for AI-augmented velocity while protecting and evaluating the essential human elements of work: character, critical judgment, empathy, and leadership trust.

• Partner directly with the Head of R&D and technical VPs to align talent strategy with Cloudflare's product roadmap, platform architecture, and operational goals.
• Act as the chief conductor across People Team COEs-synthesizing R&D's operational realities to push COEs for tailored, high-impact talent programs while challenging R&D leaders to elevate their organizational standards.
• Apply analytical rigor to people metrics, diagnosing organizational health, attrition trends, and productivity indicators to guide business decisions proactively.

• Architect agile, high-velocity R&D structures designed for AI-native workflows, optimizing team size, spans of control, and cross-functional interfaces across platform and product teams.
• Partner with engineering leadership to rethink operating rhythms and team structures as development shifts from traditional models to AI-assisted, agent-driven engineering.
• Evolve technical career frameworks, leveling, and role definitions to reflect the higher leverage expected in AI-native engineering environments.
• Drive succession planning, critical-role mapping, and retention strategies for specialized technical talent across Cloudflare's global hubs.
• Establish clear boundaries between work optimized by AI and decisions requiring human judgment, ethical clarity, nuance, and character.

• Drive complex, continuous change initiatives across global R&D teams, equipping leaders to navigate structural evolution, technological pivots, and shifting priorities with clarity.
• Deliver custom, service-oriented solutions tailored to business needs, providing high-trust coaching to senior technical leaders as they navigate complex team dynamics with empathy and results.
• Team Leadership
  Lead a global team of HRBPs, setting a high standard for strategic partnership, business fluency, and execution speed.

Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.

This role is eligible to participate in Cloudflare's equity plan.

Cloudflare offers a complete package of benefits and programs to support you and your family. Our benefits programs can help you pay health care expenses, support caregiving, build capital for the future and make life a little easier and fun! The below is a description of our benefits for employees in the United States, and benefits may vary for employees based outside the U.S.

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